POSTGAME WRAP: Giants Defeat Not-Roy Halladay

By Thomas Todd, on April 17th, 2012

It sure is nice to score four runs.

Pablo Sandoval extended his hitting streak to 11 in the 5th with a double and eventually scored, but his most important at-bat was in the first. After an Angel Pagan single and a Melky Cabrera(!) triple, Sandoval bounced out to second to score The Melk Man. This has been the elusive RBI for the Giants. The one that seems so easy, but darkens the soul when the runner is eventually stranded.

Buster Posey is a baller. He singled, got Gold Glove’d by Polanco on a rope, broke a bat for a single, and a Charles-Barkley-golf-swung a single to center. Games like these are the difference between .285 and .310 hitters. Oh ya and he stole third. Bwahahahahaha.

Where do I start on the defense? After every outfielder in the organization took a bad route to a ball in yesterday’s game, the errors just kept coming today. Crawford seems to boot a ball for every great play he makes, a ratio I’m not sure I’m comfortable with. He easily could have been charged with a second error on a backhander. Every bad error day assures a Nate Schierholtz start the following day, and with the way his bat looks it could be back to Nate every day.

After gutting out an error-stuffed and BABIP-marinated first inning, the two-run lead going into the second let Bumgarner go into cruise control, with his lone mistake being absolutely crushed by everyone’s favorite Martian Hunter Pence. Safe to say he likes his contract, apparently it came with a run-support clause.

Stats of the Day:

11: Number of games Panda has hit safely this season

10: Number of games the Giants have played (That 17-8 Rockies games was officially declared an exhibition that took place in 1997)

11: Plate appearances by Brandon Belt since Arizona

9: Number of games the Fresno Grizzlies have played since the Giants were in Arizona…just sayin’